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Today is the deadline for people to register certain semi-automatic guns, now defined as assault weapons, with the New York State Police, Here, people protest at Syracuse's Inner Harbor in March 2013 against the gun laws, which the New York State Legislature passed with no public input.
(David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com)

Today
is the deadline for gun owners to register semi-automatic guns that were legal before
Jan. 15, 2013, the day Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the new definition of an
assault weapon into law.

Cuomo,
a Democrat and a gun owner, championed the new laws as a way to limit
high-capacity guns in the state without forcing anyone to turn in previously
legal firearms. To that end, the law created a registry for the newly banned
guns, a grandfather clause that allows people to keep legal guns owned before
Jan. 15, 2013, as long as the owners register each firearm with the New York
State Police.

It
was unclear how many of New York's gun owners were complying with today's
deadline. The Safe Act exempts officials from disclosing information about the
registry. To date, state police have declined to release aggregate numbers that
could show compliance rates throughout the state.

That's
another part of the law that needs revisiting, Magee said today. Assemblyman
Will Barclay, R-Pulaski, agreed.

"I
think it would be legitimate to get the numbers," Barclay said. "Any general
stats on how many people register would be interesting. Then you could see how
the law is working."

But
that hasn't dissuaded many gun owners, who feel the laws erode their Second
Amendment rights. Many critics also argue the laws where rushed through the New
York State Legislature, with no public hearings or debate.

A
small group of state lawmakers, including Magee and Barclay, are on their side.
Sen. Kathy Marchione, R-Halfmoon, and Assemblyman David DiPietro, R-East
Aurora, have introduced a bill to repeal the act. It has just 22 sponsors in
the Assembly and 10 in the Senate and is unlikely to go anywhere, Magee and others acknowledged today.

Sen. James Seward, R-Milford, supports the repeal effort. But he described it as a "steep, uphill climb." Seward said he knew of just one or two senators who voted for the original act in January 2013 who had changed their minds. The act passed the Senate 43-18.

"For the most part, there's not support for the repeal legislation," he said.

Other
Central New York sponsors include Assemblymen Gary Finch, R-Springport and Bob
Oaks, R-Macedon; and Sen. Joe Griffo, R-Rome.

The
Safe Act does much more than redefine and ban an "assault weapon." It stiffens
penalties for crimes committed with a firearm, requires background checks on
private gun sales, bans large-capacity magazines and elevates the homicide of a
first responder to a first-degree murder charge. It's now a felony to possess a
gun on school property.

But
controversial parts of the law have festered with some gun owners, and they've
won a couple of victories. One, a federal judge in Western New York ruled the
laws' seven-bullet maximum limit as arbitrary, negating that part of the law in
part of the state.

Two, many elected sheriffs have said they would not enforce
parts of the law. Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh said he would refer tips
about illegal possessions of assault weapons to the state police.

Still,
getting a repeal through the Democratically-controlled Assembly, and even
co-GOP led Senate, would be a stretch, Barclay said. "I don't think the votes
are there in the Senate either," he said. "That doesn't mean you shouldn't hold
rallies and show your disdain or disagreement for the laws. That might make
people think twice about something else."

Barclay and Seward also said they thought that any real chance of changing the laws would happen in the courts.

Some of the critics say the solution is to get-out-the-vote against Cuomo, who is expected to run for re-election this year.

"Change governors," said Mike Mastrogiovanni, the chair of the Central New York area chapter of the Shooters Committee on Political Education. And, he says, "to keep pressure on the assemblymen and senators and let them know our dissatisfaction with their performance."